Iran trains female ninjas as potential assassins

Three thousand Iranian women being trained as ninja warriors say they will use
their martial arts skills to defend the country if necessary.

3:11PM GMT 18 Feb 2012

Scores of black-clad female "ninja" fighters whose ages range from 5 to 56 are just a handful of 3,000 women in Iran who are being trained as lethal warriors at a school in Tehran.

"We train women to have strength and ability. We have to do everything in our power to protect our homeland," said Akbar Faraji, who runs the school.

One of the fighters who has been training for over 13 years said, "Our aim is for Iranian women to be strengthened and if a problem arises, we will definitely declare our readiness to defend our Islamic homeland."

Iran has proclaimed advances in nuclear technology, including new centrifuges able to enrich uranium, a move that has heightened its confrontation with the West over suspicions it is planning to make nuclear weapons.

On Friday, the Home Secretary, William Hague told The Telegraph that Iran's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction could trigger a “new Cold War.”